But Manchester is also a splendid football city, which is up there with the best of them.

Red and blue, United and City.

A lot of the underplaying of the Manchester rivalry in the media could be due in part to the absurd claim from some adults that United aren't heavily supported in Manchester.

Now of course United have fans from all over Britain, such is the appeal and success of the club (I don't think it will take you long to find a Juventus fan in Rome, a Bayern Munich fan in Frankfurt, a Real Madrid fan in Zaragoza etc etc). They also have an enormous fan base far beyond these shores.

Manchester City moved to their new Eastlands home after the 2002 Commonwealth Games

But the mere idea that a club of United's size and significance doesn't
attract huge support from within the city is of course embarrassing
nonsense, and just something that has cropped up for some bizarre
reason in the satellite television era.

Another reason for the fact that Manchester derby seems overlooked at times is that the two teams simply haven't played each other often enough over the past 20 years, due to City's yo-yoing activities.

And of course there is the huge disparity between the clubs in terms of success - the current empire of United with their league titles and European Cups, and the at times farcical saga of City, with their chopping of managers and massive wait for silverware which still goes on.

But there was a time of course when this wasn't the case - when City were the dominant force in Manchester football, and this was generally true of the 1970s, where I begin my latest look back at memorable matches from yesteryear.

1974: LAW SCORES AGAINST HIS OLD CLUB AS UNITED ARE RELEGATED

I've already hit out at one ridiculous myth (United fans not coming from Manchester) and it's time to correct another.

Denis Law's famous backheel all those years ago at Old Trafford didn't relegate United - they were heading down in any case after Birmingham won on the final day of the 1973-74 season.

What can't be disputed though is that the goal produced one of football's unforgettable images, with a clearly upset Law feeling unable to celebrate scoring against a club that meant so much to him for so many years.

SEE LAW SCORE AGAINST HIS OLD CLUB

He was subsititued and had played his last game in league football. Pictures really do paint a thousand words.

It was a notable early success for Tony Book, who had replaced the sacked Ron Saunders as City boss.

Book would go on to be manager for five years, winning the League Cup for City in 1976 (it is a scandal of course for a club of City's size that they are still waiting for their next piece of silver after that Wembley win against Newcastle 33 years ago).

United would face the ignominy of heading down to the second division six years after being crowned champions of Europe. The writing had been on the wall for a couple of years.

They bounced back to the top flight at the first attempt under manager Tommy Docherty.

1989: CITY THRASH UNITED ON MEMORABLE DAY FOR BLUE HALF OF MANCHESTER

Ian Brightwell is congratlulated by Alan Harper after scoring for City in their 1989 win

An afternoon that is part of Manchester football folklore, and one that City supporters of a certain age will never struggle to recall.

Alex Ferguson (he was just plain Alex back then) famously went straight to bed after this match, so upset he was about the result.

He later remembered: 'We were slaughtered 5-1 at Maine Road in the most embarrassing defeat of my management career.

'After the game I went straight home, got into bed and put the pillow over my head.'

If somebody had told you that day that a decade later Fergie would be chaired shoulder high round the Nou Camp in Barcelona as his team won the European Cup to complete a treble, and would then be knighted, you would probably have been sending for the men in white coats.

United started the match pretty brightly but after a brief stoppage for crowd trouble the wheels fell off for the men in red.

David Oldfield gave City the lead, and Trevor Morley doubled the advantage after a mistake from United keeper Jim Leighton.

Ian Bishop extended City's lead to 3-0 before half-time and home supporters were already in dreamland.

Mark Hughes pulled a goal back for United with a superb bicycle kick, but late goals from Oldfield and Andy Hinchcliffe, with the visitors by now in total disarray, put the gloss on a famous win for City.

United were bedraggled, and continued that way for some months, but they would of course find salvation in the FA Cup that season. The rest is history.

For City supporters, although they will always have fond memories of that autumn day 20 years ago, you feel that in some ways it has been like a millstone round their neck.

1993: UNITED MEMORABLY STORM BACK TO STUN NEIGHBOURS AT MAINE ROAD

Roy Keane scored a late winner for United at Maine Road

There was the smell of change in the air, not just in Manchester but English football as a whole.

United had finally thrown the weight of history off their shoulders and won their first league title since 1967.

For many United supporters their 1993-94 vintage remains the finest of Fergie's reign, but before this match they were smarting after the disappointment of being knocked out of the European Cup by Galatasaray in midweek.

Naturally City supporters didn't hestitate to rub United noses in their defeat, and their afternoon was becoming even more enjoyable when Niall Quinn headed two goals to put the hosts in control.

An error from Michel Vonk allowed Eric Cantona to pull a goal back however, and United visibly grew in confidence.

With Roy Keane now controlling the match in midfield, it became more a matter of when, not if United scored. City were nervous and it showed.

Keane set up Cantona for an equaliser, and soon after the Irishman gleefully fired in a winner, sending visiting supporters into ecstasy.

City supporters had been taunting United for losing a two goal lead against Galatasaray in the first leg of their tie, and nobody from the blue half of the city was laughing at the irony afterwards.

1994: FIVE STAR CHAMPIONS TOO GOOD FOR CITY AT OLD TRAFFORD

United had good reason for wanting to score five goals on a cold night at Old Trafford in November 1994, with the reason sitting a few paragraphs above this one.

It began as a typically carefree night in the university bar for me but it proved to be one of the most memorable matches that I can recall being played on a Thursday night.

Andrei Kanchelskis fires home United's fifth goal at Old Trafford in 1994

Cantona opened the scoring for United, and a deflected shot from Andrei Kanchelskis doubled their advantage.

City keeper Simon Tracey had no luck when he saw Kanchelskis tuck away a rebound for United's third and Mark Hughes scored a fourth for the hosts.

The home crowd were baying for a fifth goal, and with time almost up it duly arrived, with the peerless Cantona setting up Kanchelskis.

The Ukrainian again hit a first effort at Tracey but was alert to the rebound and put the gloss on a memorable derby win for United.

The match was played only two months before Cantona's infamous kung fu kick at Crystal Palace, and United narrowly lost out in the league to Blackburn. City struggled for most of the campaign, and eventually finished up 17th in the table.

2007: UNITED BATTLE FOR WIN THAT TAKES THEM CLOSER TO TITLE

The derby game was becoming established in the football calendar again.

City had endured a frankly preposterous period in their history in the years before, with the low point an extraordinary relegation to the old third division.

But a dramatic play-off win over Gillingham a few days after United's European Cup win in 1999 set them back on the right road, and they were establishing themselves in the top flight by 2007.

Stuart Pearce had a reasonable start as manager, but a stuttering campaign in 2006-07 put his job under threat, and he would be replaced in the summer by former England boss Sven Goran Eriksson.

United were again visiting their neighbours after European pain,
with their semi-final defeat against AC Milan only a few days
previously. Indeed, the joke doing the rounds was that the AIG on
United shirts stood for 'Almost In Greece'.

But there was no time
to lick any wounds, because United had a crucial league match to win,
with just three games of the season remaining.

This was a
lunchtime kick-off in Blighty, which is inconvenient at the best of
times, but for me in the Caribbean it was a ludicrously early start to
the day.

United weren't at their best by any means, but went a
goal up when Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled by Michael Ball, and the
Portuguese star picked himself up to score from the penalty spot.

City looked like they might well throw a spanner in the works when they were awarded a penality after Wes Brown bundled into Ball with 11 minutes remaining, but Edwin van der Sar saved Darius Vassell's effort.

Sir Alex Ferguson danced with delight on the touchline, and when Chelsea failed to win at Arsenal the following day United were league champions for the 16th time.

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MANCHESTER DERBY SPECIAL: Sportsmail takes City and United on a trip down memory lane